Friday Flix: The Decoy Bride

And we’re back with another edition of Friday Flix. I considered doing this post on Valentine’s Day, but comics demanded they had their place and since it was Thursday at that time anyway, well… Here we are.

Today we’re featuring, The Decoy Bride, starring Kelly Macdonald, Alice Eve, and of course David Tennant. Yeah, I think a lot of us would watch a movie just because David Tennant was in it. So, I did.

The description from IMDB.com:

When the world’s media descend on the remote Scottish island where a Hollywood actress is attempting to get married, a local girl is hired as a decoy bride to put the paparazzi off the scent.

THE GOOD

That should be obvious, shouldn’t it? David Tennant. And he uses his Doctor Who accent. And he does a fantastic job with his character. Plus I loved a certain scene where he ends up “playing” the bagpipes. It might be worth it just for that.

Our heroine, Katie (Kelly Macdonald), is also quite hilarious as awkward small-town girl. You might recognize her voice from Brave. Anyway, it seems they wrote most of the script for her—at least in that she has some great awkward girl moments that will make you both squirm and laugh.

THE BAD

The plot, for one. Lara Tyler just wants to get married where the paparazzi can’t watch. She almost gets married the first time, but this obsessed photographer finds her and she kicks him out, then cancels the whole wedding and says we need a place more remote. But the BFF and I were left wondering why she didn’t just get married right after she’d kicked the guy out. I guess they wanted to introduce things a little better, but it was an awkward start (and I’m not talking awkward funny).

Plus they reminded us of exactly how scrawny David Tennant really is. Whatever they did for Doctor Who I wish they’d employed here. If the camera adds 10 pounds, looks like David needs a few sandwiches.

They focused a little too much time on Lara Tyler and not enough time on David’s and Kelly’s characters. Lara honestly felt like a third wheel to the story. They really could have started the story on the island. Maybe Kelly bumps into David and they have a moment, then she realizes he’s engaged to someone else, kind of like The Wedding Planner (not that I’m saying that’s the best movie ever either).

Honestly, the story was about the characters of David and Kelly. This is where rewriting the script to have things make a little more sense would have come in handy. It made me wonder if there are characters in my novel that are acting as third wheels. In fact, in a previous iteration of SHADE I did have a third wheel character my mentor recommended I strike out completely. He’s gone now, and the story is better. He may come back in the future, but not for this first book.

I recommend you take a look at your cast and figure out if someone is a third wheel. If they are, either cut them or find a way to rework them in so they fit the story.

THE UGLY

Would you believe that’s Alice Eve? She dons this daft disguise during the movie. I guess some actresses playing actresses can do their own make-up! Actually, I thought she was the most interesting when she was donning this disguise. But her role was kind of blah. Like I said, third wheel character. I’m hoping she gets something a little better written for Star Trek Into Darkness.

WOULD I RECOMMEND IT?

Well, that’s depends…

…on the reason you want to watch it. It’s a B-Movie, no doubt. But if you’re missing the Doctor, this might satisfy. It’s currently streaming on Netflix, so I’d say if you can watch it free of additional charge, go for it. Anyone not in it for David Tennant or Kelly Macdonald may want to skip.

What did you think of the Decoy Bride? Did you watch it for David? Did you like it? Let me know in the comments below.

Allons-y!

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14 thoughts on “Friday Flix: The Decoy Bride”

I watched this with my sister, and really enjoyed it for David Tennant and Kelly MacDonald. My favorite part was MacDonald’s attempt at an American accent. A lot of the ‘Hollywood’ elements could have been cut. Altogether, it’s a good movie to watch on a quiet night when you don’t want to think too much.

I haven’t watched this although I love watching wedding movies. I think I’ve seen The Hangover a few times to say I’d recommend it. Same for Bridesmaids and The Wedding Crashers. Something about wedding movies that brings out the bad in people. I still haven’t figured out what it is! 🙂

Haven’t seen it- what I’m wondering is how you felt when you cut an entire character from your work, third wheel or no. I have one who I can’t cut, but whose part I’m considering changing (or shortening), though he still needs to be involved and will be very important in the future. The fact is that he is absolutely necessary to get things started, probably much like the character you mentioned above. At least I’m not guilty of giving him too much “screen time”- dude drops out of the story after the first act, other than someone else feeling terribly guilty about him. 🙂

Obviously I don’t have the spectrum of your story spread in front of me, but my instinct is to take caution in having a character there solely as a plot device. There’s a good chance your readers will see that and be disappointed or annoyed (in the bad way). If he doesn’t work with too much screen time, he may not be one you want to include in your cast.

For me, my mentor pointed out I already had a character filling the role my third wheel was filling. He was essential to a few scenes, at first, but then I reworked things and was able to erase him by using other characters to fill his role. It made a certain character more nefarious than I would have liked. I liked this nefarious character a lot, but the funny thing about changes is it creates an alternate course for your book where things that might have worked before no longer do. I had to change motivations, but at the same time I discovered things I wouldn’t have employed had I not made the change. It’s hard to get specific without examples. Hopefully some of that made sense.

I would just say take caution. What you’re trying to do with that character may work beautifully, or it may not, but I think it’s always worth brainstorming what you’d have to do if you cut them completely, just to see where things lead. Best of luck.